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Show LOST MOTION :: By THOMAS ARKLE CLARK $ j Dean of Men, University of x - :::: Illinois. :f,:,,,.,,,,,,,...,,.x I needed a little information at Providence, and as there was a young woman ahead of me, I hud both time and opportunity to watch the young : man in charge of the booth. All his actions were slow and deliberate. He iiad no nerves, apparently, and no ap- j I precintion of the fact that anyone I , might be pressed for time. He did ! nothing with directness. He would j dip his pen Into an ink bottle out of j sight somewhere under the desk and j then shake it once or twice in the dl- rectlon of the floor to remove the surplus Ink and wave It in the air before be-fore beginning to write. Constantly lie was stopping to turn something over or to push something aside In search of a lost notation of some sort. He would open a drawer and then shut it, he would wander off to some remote and hidden part of the office for a blotter or a writing pad, or some esoteric fact of which he seemed to be In need ; he would hesitate in his work and look up as some one passed, and all this as time was passing. His task was simply to copy a name and a number and a date In the paper he was making out a task that he could liave accomplished In one-tenth of the time It took him had he gone directly at it. Most of his activity was merely lost notion; it was a little flourish before lie began really to do anything; it had little or no connection with the main task in hand. As n worker he was worth about fifteen cents an hour and 'ie caused me nearly to miss an en ::igement. His method is not an uncommon ane. Any one who watched McCarter at his books would see that he studied in this same way1. Most of the time that he was supposed to be studying he was filling his fountain pen. or he was looking for his pipe or asking irrelevant questions of bis roommate. He talked or sang snatches of the latest song or dozed over his book There was no concentration, no getting get-ting directly at the point. Most of his mental activity, if It could be so called was lost motion; most of his rime was wasted. Men tackle moral problems In mnch the same way. They edge round them, they evade a definite issue, they play with moral principles as the man In Providence played with the materials on his desk. They get nowhere, because be-cause they have no definite objective in view. Their moral activities are mostly lost motion. ( by Weatern Nwpjr Union.) |